Return of the Adders
by Mikhal
Summary: The Star Adders begin their ascent as the dominant home Clan and their quest to return to the Inner Sphere.


Satan's Table Dagda, Pentagon Cluster, 9 January, 3069  
  
"Venom 1 to Fang 1, report, over," a voice crackled through Nikolai's neurohelmet. "Roger, Fang 1 here, I have multiple contacts moving my way, looks like, a star of enemies," Nikolai said. "Roger, medium `Mechs, quiaff?" "Ah, neg," Nikolai answered as his computer picked up the contacts better, "two Firemoths and a point of elementals." "Only three points worth.watch your back Fang 1, I will send in Terror star to help, ETA, four minutes." Nikolai licked his lips, "Roger Venom 1, Fang 1, out." He turned his Hellbringer so it was facing perpindicular to the high speed Firemoths' paths. He switched over to another frequency and addressed his star, "The Mandrills are moving in fast, so let us nail them quick before they get out of range. I will take the first Firemoth in the front, Fang 2, you take the second one. Fang 3, take out that point of elementals. The rest of you, watch out for more bandits, they could sneak up behind us. All right, get moving!" The Hellbringer lurched to life and began moving at a medium jog over the flat plain of Satan's Table. The atmosphere is so inhospitable here that there is no hope if my cockpit is breached! He slowed his `Mech a bit as he began formulating a plan of attack. The Firemoths had a definite speed advantage over him, so he needed to stay way out of range of their guns. His Hellbringer had a pair of extended range PPCs mounted in either of its arms, so he could stay at quite a distance from the enemy. Well, here we go! Nikolai squeezed down on the trigger for both PPCs and sent a pair of lightning bolts streaking towards the Firemoth. The first hit it at the shoulder joint and sheared the arm right off the light `Mech. The other went low and passed narrowly through the churning legs. The Firemoth's pilot, now aware of the threat, turned his `Mech straight at Nikolai and charged full speed at him. Savashri, this one is either amazingly bold or completely mad! He fired again with his PPCs. With the speed advantage nulled by the direct course of the Firemoth, both of the azure lances hit square on target. The small `Mech did not have a chance of weathering this onslaught. It's insides creaked and groaned, and it slowly began falling backwards. The Firemoth collapsed in a heap of twisted armor, and from the smoke billowing from the cockpit Nikolai knew that the pilot was dead. About two hundred meters to his right, the other two warriors continued their duels against their enemies. The area was burnt and destroyed, with scars burnt in the sand by lasers and huge craters carved out by autocannons and the feet of `Mechs. Fang 3 made short work of the elementals, first destroying two with a few well placed shots. When the other three charged his `Mech, hoping to leap onto its leg and tear away the armor plating, he raised his foot and stomped the armored giants flat. The second Firemoth did not offer much resistance either. Fang 2 fired a single gauss slug from his Cauldron Born's arm. The heavy magnetically powered cannonball buzzed low over the plane, crushing straight into the Firemoth's right knee, snapping the leg backwards and toppling the `Mech. It landed hard on its side, and the torso seemed to slowly expand like a balloon being inflated. In a bright flash of flame of white-hot fragments of ferro-fibrous, the Firemoth exploded brilliantly as its SRM ammo detonated. Nikolai saw a small black cylinder rising up out of the roiling inferno. "I assume you do not want him for a bondsman, quiaff?" he asked with a smirk. Fang 2 laughed, "Aff, Star Commander. He barely put up a fight.besides, the Mandrills always enact bondsref." Nikolai laughed in reply. It was quite true, for the Fire Mandrills made notoriously uncooperative bondsman, even worse than the Blood Spirits. They were known to commit suicide and enact bondsref, even after receiving a bondcord and against the bondholder's permission. Shaking his head at the thought of such a waste, Nikolai keyed in to the trinary command net, "Fang 1 to Venom 1, enemy units destroyed. Request further instructions." "Roger Fang 1, move to that canyon ninety klicks out from your position, bearing two-six-oh. Terror star will rendevous with your about two klicks from the canyon. From there await further orders. Venom 1 out." "Roger Venom 1, Fang 1 out."  
  
Satan's Table, notorious for its sweltering heat, quickly turned into a freezing waste as the sun sank below the horizon. Nikolai was glad for the drastic temperature drop, as it would mask himself and his star from IR scans by enemy `Mechs and AeroFighters. The plateau was quiet, save for the dull thud of Fang star as it trudged towards it objective. Nikolai had been monitoring the command net since the short skirmish with the Fire Mandrill scouting party, but it had been almost completely silent save for a few banal status reports from other stars. Nikolai had always found these long marches almost unbearably tedious. If the area was not a hot zone, he would've vented some of his frustration by blasting a few rocks with his PPCs. This trial over the Mandrill holdings on Dagda was being fought on Satan's Table because of the utter absence of life in the whole area. After nearly three days worth of fighting, it was drawing to a close. But, the Mandrills proved ever as tenacious and ferocious as their totem animal. Even when their command star had been destroyed after being lured into a lava flow, they had continued to fight hard and was giving the whole trinary a significant headache. Intelligence confirmed that only a handful of enemy `Mechs remained operational, mostly stars cobbled together from the remains of the battered trinary. However, despite their obviously depleted numbers, the Mandrills had managed to harry the Star Adder forces enough to the point where most patrols had been grouped together for safety. Nikolai yawned as he checked the distance to rendevous point with Terror star. Still about thirty klicks out. They would be there in less than an hour. He sighed slowly as he stared at the impenetrable dark void before him. The slow rock of his `Mech lulled Nikolai into a dreamy state. He had been operating for five hours straight now, and was beginning to feel fatigued. Before he knew it, his chin had dropped to his chest and he was a snoring softly.  
  
A blast of noise jolted Nikolai awake. Outside it was still dark, but he could see stabs of blue, green, and red slashing through the darkness. They had run into an ambush! He quickly cycled through the targets, settling on a Stormcrow in the "B" configuration. He fired his PPCs just as the Stormcrow fired a hail of slugs from the monstrous autocannon mounted in its left arm. The rounds tore into the Hellbringer's chest, ripping sheets of armor from it and sending sparks flying into the air. The PPCs went errant and smashed into a towering boulder, crushing the huge rock to bits. Though his heat meter was spiking high into the yellow zone, making him a prime target for the Stormcrow's IR sensors, Nikolai fired the trio of medium lasers mounted in his `Mech's chest. The ruby beams sizzled armor from the Stormcrow's left arm, and one even struck it in its jutting cockpit, but did little damage. Another roar and more autocannon rounds blasted sheets of ferro- fibrous from the Hellbringer's skeleton. The `Mech shuddered under the force of the blow, but Nikolai kept it on its feet. Before Nikolai could answer with his PPCs, the Mandrill MechWarrior let loose with a six pack of medium lasers. Two went high and missed altogether, but the other four hit concentrated on Nikolai's left arm. There was a creak and violent snapping as the arm was severed from the Hellbringer. The enemy MechWarrior retreated into a small slot canyon before Nikolai could return fire. "Your heat must be off the scales after that little assault," muttered Nikolai as he brought up his IR sensors. The holographic display in his neurohelmet turned a ghostly green, but he picked out the bright glowing outline of the Stormcrow as it waited behind the rock wall. After a quick check on his heat gauge, Nikolai set his Hellbringer into a dead sprint. He rotated the torso ninety degrees to the left, so it was pointed straight into the slot canyon. His thumb hover over the TIC, the target interlock circuit. As soon as he depressed the red button all of his vast arsenal would open fire upon the Stormcrow. It will be hotter than an oven in here, but with luck it will destroy this upstart. The canyon entrance sweeped into view, and he saw the Stormcrow standing in wait for him. Nikolai had the good fortune to fire first, and stabbed down on the TIC. His one PPC sliced into the Ryoken's chest, melting tons of armor from it. His trio of medium lasers burned jagged wounds over the `Mech's arms and legs. The six SRMs he had fired raced into the slot canyon. Three of them hit in the left leg, snapping the myomer muscle and crumpling some of the `Mech's inner skeleton. The others blasted into the canyon wall and brought chunks of stone raining down on his enemy. His machine guns spat dozens of .50 caliber rounds out at the Stormcrow, peppering its now paper- thin armor.  
  
Just as his `Mech began to fall, the Stormcrow pilot made one last stand. He fired his high-gauge autocannon and the medium lasers. The heat jumped of the scale as his heatsinks were damaged beyond operation. The autocannon hit the Hellbringer dead on its center torso, sending the `Mech reeling backwards. All six lasers hit, melting away the armor in great gouts of boiling metal from its leg.  
  
Nikolai gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep his `Mech standing.but to no avail. As it teetered backwards, he saw the ground disappear and saw only blackness. He grossly overcompensated for the fall, and with a great lunge the Hellbringer seemed to throw itself upon the ground face first.  
  
The Stormcrow wobbled like drunk on its legs. The damage to its chassis was so extensive that it could not support itself any longer. The fusion reactor had shut down due to excessive heat, and all systems had been fried by the heat as well. It began to sink to the ground, clawing vainly at the canyon wall with one hand. Then it fell to a heap, steam rising from the gaping wounds in its metal flesh.  
  
It seemed like hours later when Nikolai rose his Hellbringer to its feet, but it had only been a few minutes. He had checked on the status of his star. They were all okay, except Fang 5 had sustained significant damage to his leg and was having a tough time limping back to the firebase. He had reported to Venom 1 and to Terror 1 that his star was badly in need of repair, but had wiped out a Mandrill medium star. If intelligence was correct, only four `Mechs remained to be defeated before securing a Star Adder victory. Then he had sat in the cockpit of his `Mech, staring at the sand beneath the crushed plexiglass of his cockpit viewport. A strange thought had come to him while he had sat there. And he had resolved to do it, but he had no idea why. I hope by the Star League that I am right in this matter, or I may regret it for ages to come. With a bit of a struggle, he managed to roll his `Mech onto its back. Freebirth! That surat has mauled my `Mech almost beyond usefulness. He slid his neurohelmet off his head and unhooked the coolant hose from his vest. He shut down the fusion reactor and the dull growl below him slowly turned into silence. When he attempted to open the canopy, it refused to budge. Cursing the "stravag techs" he kicked the canopy out and jumped down onto the ground under his `Mech. It was freezing outside, and Nikolai only wore his shorts and cooling vest, but he paid no mind to the numbing cold. He started to make his way out of the shadow of his fallen Hellbringer, but he turned back when he remembered something. He quickly snatched three nylon cords from a compartment on his command couch. He then jogged towards the Stormcrow, the crunch of his boots on sand accompanying him. The canopy glass of the Stormcrow was heavily tinted, so that Nikolai could barely see the outline of a human form seated in the command couch. He noticed a burned, crystallized area where his medium laser had struck the canopy glass, but had only done superficial damage. It took Nikolai a few moments to find the emergency release for the canopy, as he was rather unfamiliar with the design, which had never caught on in the Star Adder Touman. The canopy hissed as it popped upward. Nikolai lifted it the rest of the way up and was confronted with a sorry sight. The cockpit was awash in chunks of armor, some of which were still hot to the touch. Sparks showered from destroyed monitors, and the neurohelmet lay on the ground, split down the middle. The MechWarrior inside was only in slightly better condition than his machine. Bruises covered his arms from the stunning impact of the fall, and a horrendous burn was seared across his chest. His head had a nasty gash in it, and blood had matted his dusty blond hair. His coolant vest was split, and green coolant was spilled over his lap. Ignoring the warrior for the time being, Nikolai quickly located the Stormcrow's battle recorder. He was quite interested to see how the battle had looked from his opponent's point of view. With the battle recorder safely tucked in his waistband at the small of his back, Nikolai begain fastening the three cords around the warrior's wrist. The defeated warrior tossed his head about as he slipped back into consciousness. He seemed to come around just as Nikolai finished tying the last cord. "I am Star Commander Nikolai of Clan Star Adder," he said, "you are my bondsman." That word seemed to snap the Fire Mandrill warrior straight out of his dream world, "Bondsman?" he exclaimed, wrenching his hand away from Nikolai and fixing him with a withering gaze. Nikolai was taken aback by the man's fiery stare, but maintained his composure. Nikolai was small for a MechWarrior: he had been birthed as a pilot phenotype but came out too large by clan standards. He was then placed in the MechWarrior training program. Standing at a diminutive five foot two inches and weighing around a hundred pounds, Nikolai had been forced to work hard, as his size caused him to be considered a runt, weak, a supreme washout candidate. But he had made it through. The MechWarrior he had just made his bondsman was of normal size, but with a build so thick and muscular Nikolai thought he could have made an elemental. His hair was mostly blond but with many flecks of brown and black running through it. His blue eyes were so light they looked like ice, but any ice would have been melted by the extreme rage that flared within them. The bondsman knotted his hands into fists, then slowly, deliberately, he drew out a long knife from his boot. "I request permission to enact the rite of bondsref," he scowled at Nikolai. Nikolai stared at the warrior a moment, then shook his head, "Denied, bondsman." "Then I will call a trial of refusal for my right to enact bondsref without a loss of honor." Nikolai smirked, "You are no longer a warrior, bondsman, you have been stripped of that title. You are a member of the laborer caste of clan Star Adder. You cannot call a trial of refusal against me." "You are nothing, Star Adder! You hide behind the laws of Kerensky to save yourself! You are a disgrace, a dezgra!" the warrior bellowed back. Nikolai resisted the urge to strike him, but instead pulled his black glove off and cast it to the floor of the cockpit. "Very well then, bondsman. Name your opening bid." "I bid myself, minus my cooling vest." "Bargained well and done," Nikolai said, shedding his own vest. "We shall fight outside, upon your `Mech."  
  
A steady cold breeze had picked up, blowing dust devils around the two warriors. "The circle of equals shall be this `Mech. Whoever is cast off it or dies shall be declared the loser," Nikolai said. "Seyla!" grunted the bondsman, crouching low, veins bulging on his well muscled arms. "Let us begin, then.prepare yourself, whelp!" Nikolai bellowed. This could get ugly. The bondsman charged forward, shrieking like his clan's namesake, hoping to bull Nikolai over. The small MechWarrior sidestepped away from the clumsy attack, then landed a chop between the large warrior's shoulder blades as he blundered by. Muttering something profane, the bondsman got back on his feet, but Nikolai could see that his strike had hit home. He dropped into a fighting stance, "I may be small, but I have learned to fight just as effectively as you, bondsman. I know of the week points on the human body, and I will exploit them until you cry out for mercy!" The bondsman spat onto the `Mech, "Just shut up and fight, by the Founder you are worse than the Ice Hellions!" They circled awhile, each dissecting and analyzing each others position so as to discern if any weakness could be located. Apparently, the bondsman located Nikolai's quicker, and leapt with a flying kick, turning almost parallel to the ground. Nikolai was ready, and as the bondsman scissored his legs rapidly, aiming to catch the Star Adder's head in a vice and snap his neck, his hands shot up and stopped the living guillitione. Moving quickly so as the bondsman's momentum would not be reduced, he twisted his upper body around and flung him several meters away. The force forced the air out of the bondsman's lungs, and Nikolai heard him gasping for air. Nonetheless, he was back on his feet, but could only manage a haphazard stance. Nikolai raised his eyebrow and nodded, silently commending this warrior's seemingly unending supply of fortitude. The bondsman shook his head and managed to rasp out a few words, "I.will never," he sucked in a large breath so he could say the last few words with some authority, "let your break me!" Nikolai took the offensive this time, rushing forward with lightning quickness. He grabbed the warrior by his left forearm, raised it up, and jammed his index and middle fingers into the armpit. The bondsman shuddered with the pain as Nikolai jammed nerve against bone. Then, with his victim sufficently immobilized, Nikolai grabbed his arms with both hands and deftly tossed him over his shoulder and onto the sand below. The small MechWarrior walked out to stand perched on the edge of the `Mech's chest. He crossed his arms over his chest as he watched the bondsman struggling to get on his fours. "In the tradition of the clans I am declared the winner in this trial of refusal. You cannot and will not enact bondsref. Let this matter bind us until it is but a memory to the universe. Seyla!" The bondsman turned his baleful eyes up at Nikolai. The MechWarrior was silhouetted by Dagda's full red moon, seemingly an icon of the war god himself. But this seemingly humbling display did nothing but add fuel to the fire that burned the bondsman's heart. "Seyla," he hissed, barely audible above the quickening wind. And then he collapsed into the sand. 


End file.
